Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The U.S. Postal Service took a small step toward intelligent downsizing yesterday with a buy-out package for up to 30,000 employees, but it needs to do two more things -- quickly:

1) Reveal as much as possible about the planned consolidation of its 400 or so processing and distribution centers.

2) Overhaul the process of communicating projected retirement benefits for those who take early retirement.

The deal worked out with two employee unions offers a $15,000 early-retirement package to selected employees, mostly retail clerks, mail handlers, and vehicle technicians. For details, see the USPS announcement, the American Postal Workers Union memo, and the Washington Post's coverage. Also, see the 600-plus comments on yesterday's articles at such sites as PostalNews.com, PostalReporter.com, and PostalMag.com, where some folks are saying they will take the package while others say it's not enough.

Employees have only 30 days to decide whether to take the package, which presents a dilemma for eligible employees at the "P&DCs".

USPS has made no secret of its intent to consolidate its processing network. In just the past 30 days, it has announced eight such consolidations and the potential for five more, according to the APWU. Plans for the Flats Sequencing System suggest many more consolidations of flats sortation if not of entire plants (as discussed in Death of the SCF, Part 3: Flats Sequencing and, more recently, Declining Volumes Lead to FSS Expansion.)

When P&DCs are consolidated, affected employees typically have to commute or relocate to a P&DC in another city. What a shame, and lost opportunity, if some employees decide in September not to take the early-retirement offer and then discover a month or two later that the only way they can avoid being laid off is to take a job more than 100 miles from home.

As for the second thing USPS needs to do quickly, "The Postal Service's Early-Retirement Snafu" has already spelled out how USPS often understates the benefits for prospective early retirees, leading to abysmally low responses to early-retirement offers. If it's worth $15,000 to get people to retire early, it's certainly worth spending a few bucks on employee communication to ensure those people have accurate information about their retirement benefits.

17 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Your point number two sounds good on paper but fails in the real world. The Postal Service doesn't set the retirement benefits; that authority rests with the Office of Personnel Management and they won't determine an annuity figure until a couple of months after a retirement. When estimating its better to give a low estimate than a high so retirees don't get shocked and discover they can't afford to be retired.

Yes, they should reveal their plans. Those of us who retired this past July 31 (26 days ago) should have been told that there were negotiations regarding an incentive. But we were told the USPS had no money for incentives, there would be no incentives in the near future, and in fact, the USPS would not be able to meet their monetary obligations in Sept 2009. Mr Potter testified under oath at Congressional Hearings. Now three weeks later, there's money galore. He lied to Congress and he lied to the postal employees. Why reveal the truth now?

Burris/Potter your lies are catching up with you. I retired July 31,2009, because you said that this was the last Vera. I have paid union dues for 25 years while you celebrated on my money. From the beginning to the end there have been deception. You knew what you had on the table, but you failed to inform the workers who retired May, June, And July. You betrayed us, so why are you trying to make the postal worker believe that you are right now. Do not trust Burris/Potter. This is only politics. That incentive should given to the May,June,and July early retirees too. After this one maybe they will offer 30 to 40 thousands for you to get out. They are desperate and manipulative. Be careful. Do not trust them because they have many tricks up their sleeves.

If you want me to go, the $ 15K won't be enough because it will be gobbled up by the 1% penalty per year, below the age 62. Give that to us and many will leave in droves. Or, it was also mentioned about tacing on 5 years to total career. That would be worth it as well.

I believe it is time for a class action lawsuit against the Postal Service to force them to pay everyone that accepted the earlier VER's $15,000 each. The Postal Service clearly stated that "there will be no incentives in the future". This is just more typical BS from a dysfunctional organization.

once again t the usps missed the point. give pm and supervisors the incentive how smart would that be? take a PM making 75K give him 15 k to retire replace him with a clek starting pm pay at 55K saving 5k this year and 20K next year and so on. damn the usps is stupid

I retired Aug.1st because the p.o. said there is no way they would offer an incentive this year 2009.The apwu should of told its members they were so close to getting an incentive for retirees. The union and the postal service is lying to its employees. Just like they did with the antrax. Be honest and fair and give the incentive to those who retired in the past 90 days. It seems like the union officials and postal officials are wheeling and dealing with each other for their benefit, not the benefit of union members who have been paying dues for 27 yrs and more. I feel violated and used as a government employee.

Yeah, they should have money for everyone that took an early out, starting in Dec of 2008. They have money to pay Eas employees way more than what they are worth, check this out on the website USPostal Datauniverse, where you can get anybody's salary. The amount these people are paid is obscene and way out of line. If they can pay these unskilled, nonprofessionals this much money plus bonuses they certainly can afford to give us severance pay.

I retired July 31, 2009, after PMG Potter's and Apwu Pres. Burrus's comments. My facility was closing and we were being excessed with an impact radius that started at 1,000 miles and quickly went to 1,700 miles. At the age of 63 I could not relocate, and certainly could not afford to lose health insurance for myself and my husband. I have read President Burrus's Q&A's posted today, Sept 4. While he may have made statements about helping the Post Office by not deciding too soon, my local Union people made it clear that if I refused an assigned job transfer I was completely out. No retirement, no health insurance, nothing. I believe I moved my retirement date from my original choice of August 31 to July 31 because it was the best way to protect myself against the decision that was going to be made for me.

The people at the local level never told me it would be wise to hold at, that incentives were still being negotiated and an agreement could be reaced. We all were informed that the postal service had not money for incentives and not to hold our breaths. The excessing process had already started when I decided to accelerate my retirement.

Most of us are intelligent enough to wait if there were a chance of incentives, but also really needed to protect ourselves against the excessing rules, which are certainly not in the favor of the employee being excessed.

I wouldn't want to infer that the USPS is a little behind, but I received a call this week from personnell, stating that my retirement date is still on there records as August 31 and I was on their list of eligible receipients of the incentive. I of course corrected her and told her that I have been officially retired since July 31. She said that she would have to make some phone calls and get an answer, but her records showed that I was eligible. Guess what, false hope is worse than no hope.

The USPS has announced that 22,000 employees accepted the Early Retirement. (They wanted 30,000 employees) All employees who accepted the early retirement prior to August 25, 2009 are entitled to receive the incentives with the funds that are available.

Don't confuse what the Postal Service is doing to you with the Union. Burrus told you not to retire without any incentives. You took it, you lose. Try blaming yourself sometimes. It is not always somebody else's fault.

believe me, I have been blaming myself. Your comment is insulting. Unless you were present at the Fort Wayne Remote Encoding Center you cannot know what I was or was not told. Mr. Burrus did not appear and I did read all of his announcements. My decision to retire when I did was based on the information I had at the time, and was to protect myself. If you had read and comprehended my entire post you would realize that fact. As a 64 year old I chose optional retirement rather than being assigned or choosing a position at a facility where I would be unable to relocate. I do not blame the postal service or my union. The decision was mine and thanks to your insulting assumption and ocmment this web site is no longer going to be on my list, so do not bother insulting me again for a decision made based on the information I was given not on what you think. I'll trust my own judgment on my own behalf to be in my own best interests. Don't bother trying to defend your ignorance and lack of human compassion. Sorry, now I'm assuming that you are human. If it makes you feel better, I've been beating myself up quite effectively for changing my retirement date so it is impossible for you to make me feel worse than I do. Your judgmental attitude is disgusting. And I'm sorry to let you know that your attempt at causing me pain has failed. As I stated I will not return to this site so anything you post will not be read on me. Go be mean to some other old lady.

To Anonymous (Oct. 2): I think your comments were meant for "Reality". I don't think there was anything mean in my article. As for Reality's comments (Oct. 1), those are his or her opinion; I don't try to control what commenters say on this site (partly because I have learned so much from the comments of current and retired postal employees).

I have looked to see if a Class Action suit is filed. I have had no luck in finding a class Action suit filed against the USPS on behalf of the earlier retiree's who believed in what was being said to them. No incentives, and never will be another incentive.Now that it has been offered, I wrote to my Congress Man. I suggest all those who took the earlier outs and were cheated should do so. Perhaps then someone will file a Class Action against the USPS and all retiree's will get the %15,000. It is discrimintation in a true sense.Early retiree's took a cut in retirement and medical benefits as they now have to pay more for the benefit. And they wonder "WHY" the term POSTAL came into being?

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